Speer .44 Spl "J" word question

[Curly James]

Apologies for the question on "J" word bullets but I usually shoot cast and really don't reload other bullets for my handguns. I recently purchased a box of Speer Gold Dot 44 caliber 200 grain bullets to reload. I was surprised to see that they are recommended for velocities below 1100 fps. Has anyone else had any experience with these bullets. I will be loading them in .44 Spl cases and shooting them in my 4 inch 629. I prefer Unique and WW231 powders (I have a large amount of both) but also have 2400 and H110. By the way the 240 grain Gold Dots I purchased are of much different construction. I have a cowboy load I use that is a Lee 200 grain RNFP acww that works quite well behind 7 grains of unique. I would like a little more speed with the Speer Gold Dot. Thanks, CJ.

[44man]

It just follows normal procedure from bullet makers. Lighter bullets are normally used for smaller game and are made to open fast. They would be way too explosive on deer if driven fast, plus penetration would be very poor and if slowed down, penetration still suffers from lack of bullet weight.
Deer performance just starts at 240 gr's and even some of those will open too fast. You have to be very choosey. At 300 gr's, big game performance starts to peak.
Now for a defense bullet in a carry gun, the light bullet would be great.
Then you also have the problem of trying to drive the lightly constructed bullet from a powerful gun where the bullet might come apart in the bore. This was a problem in the .357 Max and .454 when weak bullets were used.
If you are loading in .44 special cases with light loads, don't worry about them, they will do fine and even moderate .44 mag loads would be OK. I would not shoot anything big with them though.

[Kraschenbirn]

I've put a few 200 gr Gold Dots through the 3" S&W Mod 24 that lives in the nightstand on my side of the bed. Loaded over 10 gr of AA #5 in Rem .44 Spl cases, they chrono at around 840-850 from my gun. Accuracy is so-so...4"-5" 25-yd groups (off-hand)...but adequate for "up close and personal" should something "go bump in the night."

Bill

[Curly James]

Just finished loading 24 of em' over 7.4 grains of Unique. I'll try them through the 629 next week and maybe have a good little defense load if they are accurate enough. I have a can of AA #5 and may give Bill's load a try. 800 to 900 fps should do the job with that bullet. Nasty neat looking round once loaded though. I have been using the old Lyman Keith boolit for so long I nearly had a stroke when they told me the price on the two boxes of Gold Dots. I have to wonder if there is really any discernable difference between the jacketed rounds and my cast rounds. Especially considering the size of the boolit (bullet). I guess it's a matter of the heavy cast Lyman versus the high tech hollowpoint. CJ.

[Biggfoot44]

"On another Forum", they have done some work with this bullet. Either as a hot .44spl, or midrange .44 Mag, primarily in terms of self defense usage. At 1200-1300 gives expansion similar to a 125 gr JHP .357 mag. Over 1300 chance of separation.

[44man]

Yes, deadly on the bad guys and for a defense load. Not good for hunting though.